Is it just me, or have the Cubs not won a rain-delayed game in a long time? I mean, I’m sure it’s happened many times over since Game 7 of the World Series, but I sure can’t remember it.
Kyle Hendricks returned to the rotation today, and, on the bright side, his start being artificially limited by the rain might help his shoulder health. On the less bright side, the two runs he allowed in three innings of work was enough for the Pirates to win, because the offense was utterly bereft of anything. They didn’t even record an extra-base hit until the 8th inning.
To add insult to injury, the Pirates scored three coming out of the rain delay to really put a damper on the hopes of a comeback by the Cubs. How did they do it? Dillon Maples got a couple outs, but also allowed a couple baserunners. Then, inexplicably, Joe Maddon brought in Mike Montgomery to face lefty Adam Frazier. It wasn’t 24 hours ago that Jed Hoyer said aloud the thing we’ve been saying all season: Montgomery is NOT A LEFTY-FACING-LEFTY match-up guy. So, of course, Frazier promptly hit his first homer of the year off of a lefty. And, of course, Montgomery then threw three scoreless complete innings.
I know that sometimes you just get got by the other team’s pitching – they’re trying, too – but it’s becoming so hard not to just see lifelessness with the Cubs right now as they apparently can do little more but flop toward the break.